The present invention relates to processing data from an input device. In particular, the present invention relates to performing tasks in a commerce application based on input data.
There are a number of different input devices that communicate with a computer. For example, retail input devices can include a keyboard for manual input, a barcode scanner for scanning barcodes and a magnetic stripe reader for reading a magnetic stripe on a credit card. Additionally, pointer devices, touch screens and other devices can be used. A commerce based application such as a retail software application running on the computer uses input data from these devices for a number of different tasks, for example to process a transaction.
Typically, software applications require a prompt or other indication of a particular input that the software application can expect. This prompting requires additional tasks to be performed by a user. Typically, the prompting is provided by a form of “touch” input device, where a user has to physically touch the device, such as a mouse, keyboard or touch screen. These additional input operations lead to increased time in processing a transaction, mistakes and training costs. For example, in a simple one-item transaction, a user will need to prompt the application to expect input related to one or more items for purchase, expect input related to customer information and expect input related to a tender used for the transaction. Thus, there is a need to provide an efficient manner for performing tasks based on input from an input device.
The discussion above is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.